The Vietnam Telecom International (VTI) company, a member of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), on November 27 inaugurated Vietnam’s link with a 20,000 kilometer submerged optical cable network that will connect Vietnam (and seven others in the Asia Pacific region) with the US.

The Asian America Gateway (AAG) network, designed to provide a capacity of up to two Terabits of data per second, will supplement existing cable systems.

Ten locations in eight countries and territories including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Guam will be connected with Hawaii and California in the US. Later it will probably incorporate other countries such as Australia and India.

With an initial capacity of 500 Gigabits per second, the undersea cable network can be upgraded using field tested Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology, which will enables it to provide upgradeable transmission facilities that can support internet and e-commerce traffic in the future.

The agreement to lay the new AAG cable network was reached in April 2007 in Malaysia.

The project has a total investment capital of nearly US$554 million, to which the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) contributes US$40 million.